Given the predeliction of London fashion week organisers to hold their events in half-built office spaces, abandoned warehouses and sites scheduled for demolition, it was perhaps only a matter of time before something like this happened.
Still, it came as a surprise to guests seated at the TopShop show space today for the avant-garde Fashion East presentation of four up and coming young British designers when a man came crashing through the ceiling of the show space, landing in the backstage area of the show.
Amidst all the pandemonium, the show just carried on to the consternation of some guests.
A man just fell through the roof of the topshop show space in front of me and I'm shaking. I saw his head hit the scaffolding
— ZOE LDN (@zoelondondj) September 16, 2014To be honest I'm pretty upset that the show carried on going. It was unfortunate, but we all saw the man fall. They could have stopped.
— ZOE LDN (@zoelondondj) September 16, 2014It turns out the unfortunate man – who was rushed to hospital – was a builder working on the roof of a premises next door when he stepped on the corrugated plastic roofing on the TopShop space, which is actually an enormous disused garage slated for demolition.
Topshop released the following rather unsatisfactory statement to Vogue.com "We're aware that people are asking why we didn't stop the show, but it wasn't affecting anyone in the show space and he received medical attention immediately. "At the moment he is being looked after by our team of medical staff who are always at the space."
